Retailers must target web-loving shoppers

Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - 09:40 by Mike Price

Almost a quarter of consumers in the UK are entirely entangled with the concept of safe shopping online and use e-commerce outlets to buy almost everything they need, according to the latest survey from Salmon.

Internet Retailing reports that modern outlets can gain the advantage over their competitors if they are willing to engage with this particularly active segment of the general public, since digital services appeal to these shoppers more than almost any other offering.

Convenience is another lynchpin of a successful strategy for safe shopping online, as 88 per cent of respondents to the study said that getting their items delivered quickly was the most important part of the process. This trumps other considerations, including the brand of the product itself.

Analysts also looked at the growing impact being made by smart hubs like Amazon’s Echo, with close to half of the 6000 people questioned confirming that they are interested in this technology, or already using it actively.

Plenty of consumers already believe that their digital habits and expectations go above and beyond what retailers can offer them at the moment, while 60 per cent claimed that they would be more likely to shop with a particular outlet if they were offered access to cutting edge, digitally driven services.

The majority believe that same day delivery is an essential offering on the modern marketplace, in spite of the fact that on average it takes almost two and a half days for products ordered online to turn up at customers’ homes.

Report spokesperson, Hugh Fletcher, said that in the age of the internet, measuring loyalty among consumers was just as hard as maintaining it, with digital services making shoppers savvier than ever and much tougher to pin down without a lot of work being involved on the part of retailers.